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Politics
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H.R. 4523: To make technical amendments to title 49, United States Code, as necessary to improve the Code.
Legislation Coming Up: This bill has been added to the House's schedule for the coming week, according to the House Majority Leader. More information can be found at http://docs.house.gov/floor. Last Action: The committees assigned to this bill sent it to the House or Senate as a whole for consideration on September 10, 2025.
Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1932. Will that change in November?
Adam Hamilton, a liberal megachurch pastor, is challenging incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall in this year’s midterm election In one of the first ads of his campaign to represent Kansas in the US Senate, the Democrat Adam Hamilton stands grilling steaks at a barbecue and attacks his opponent, Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican, for supporting “tariffs and war”. If history is any guide, it is Hamilton who is set to get cooked. Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, and more than half a century has passed since one of their nominees even came close. But he and his supporters believe circumstances have conspired to end this streak – and potentially deliver Democrats control of the Senate. Continue reading...
US building twice as much gas-fired capacity as China in AI boom, analysis finds
There has been a 76% increase in under-construction gas-fired projects amid ‘frenzy’ to build more datacenters The US has surged ahead of China in the building of new gas-fired power generation, largely to feed a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) that is adding vast amounts of planet-heating emissions, a new analysis has found. For decades, China’s rapid economic growth has seen it outpace the US in the addition of new gas power generation but a recent “frenzy” in datacenter construction for AI has reversed this, said Global Energy Monitor (Gem) in its new report. Continue reading...
Wisconsin kitten with 29 toes breaks world record for most toes on a cat
Maine Coon named Erebus Anomaly breaks previous record of 28 toes held for over two decades after overcoming illness A Maine Coon kitten from Wisconsin overcame a bout with pneumonia to break a 24-year-old world record for most toes on a cat, setting the new mark at 29. Erebus Anomaly’s unique story received US national media attention on Monday, when ABC’s World News Now program recounted what one of his owners called a “miraculous” recovery from illness in his infancy – and the subsequent Guinness World Record that he clinched. Continue reading...
Trump’s justice department has found a new way for presidents to avoid accountability | Claire Finkelstein
A recent memo claiming executive privilege over communications with private advisers invites corruption A recent office of legal counsel memo on executive privilege maintains that private advisers to a president can avoid responding to a subpoena by asserting the president’s executive privilege. The ability of presidents to shield communications from public view through claims of executive privilege, whether their own or those of a senior adviser, was already a powerful tool for presidents to avoid accountability. But if courts accept the OLC’s new interpretation of presidential privilege, it will be substantially harder to call witnesses to testify before Congress or in court proceedings regarding possible wrongdoing by the presidents. Equipping presidents with extensive power to block witnesses in legal proceedings is a dangerous practice that invites corruption by presidents and their advisers. Consider the former White House counsel Don McGahn’s 2019 refusal to testify in response to a subpoena by the House judiciary committee in connection with the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump. McGahn didn’t come up with that idea on his own. It was the Trump White House that sought to bar McGahn from testifying through an assertion of a type of executive privilege known as “testimonial immunity.” Ironically, Mueller was investigating whether Trump obstructed justice, among other things, by demanding that McGahn fire Mueller himself. Trump’s insistence that McGahn not testify, backed up by a 2019 OLC opinion , effectively made the first Trump administration complicit in the very obstruction under investigation. Continue reading...
Darline Graham and Ralph Norman head to South Carolina’s Senate runoff
Republican nominee to face Democrat Annie Andrews in midterm after rushed campaigns for Lindsey Graham’s seat Reese Boyd, the chair of the Horry county Republican party marveled on Monday afternoon at how little time Senator Darline Graham and Representative Ralph Norman have had to campaign for the Senate primary: “This is not the normal way of things.” “This is something that usually lasts at least, you know, the better part of a year,” he said. “People normally spend the better part of 18 months getting ready for it. Who knows? This may be the right way to do it? Who knows.” Continue reading...
Yorkshireman believed to be first Briton to die fighting for Russia against Ukraine
Bradley Townsend reportedly killed by a drone on 10 June in Donetsk region after joining up with separatists Europe live – latest updates A man from Yorkshire is believed to be the first British citizen to die fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine. Bradley Townsend, a 33-year-old fisher from Barnsley, left Britain in April to join up with Russian separatists in eastern Donbas to aid in their invasion of Ukraine, despite having no previous combat experience or familiar ties to eastern Europe. Alongside 49-year-old Ben Stimson and 39-year-old Aiden Minnis, Townsend was granted Russian citizenship for joining the country’s military campaign. Continue reading...
The whitewashing of the Green India Mission forest expansion initiative
The flagship environmental project has achieved ‘negligible’ results. Why so little progress, and what are the risks as the planet gets hotter? Plus, fusion dance pioneer Usha Jey • Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up here India set out to expand its forested areas a decade ago. Last week, however, we learned that the forest cover programme had barely taken root when the government’s auditors released their findings of the flagship Green India Mission. The shortfall of 97.57% from India’s initial pledge in 2014 was stark enough to alarm the government’s own auditor, who described the progress as “negligible”. Yet if you ask the government about forest cover, you’ll get a far greener picture. Continue reading...
Woman allegedly repeatedly stabbed with scissors while protecting son from ‘random’ Melbourne CBD attack
Man arrested after being restrained and pinned down by ‘heroic’ bystanders, Victoria police say Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A mother has been taken to hospital after allegedly being repeatedly stabbed by a stranger while protecting her 10-year-old son during a “random attack” in Melbourne’s CBD. The alleged attacker, 27, was arrested at the scene after he was restrained and pinned down by three bystanders, according to Victoria police. Continue reading...
Federal MP Luke Gosling charged with breaching bail after alleged assault in NT
Member for Solomon was charged after an alleged incident at a cultural festival in Darwin in July Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Northern Territory police has charged federal Labor MP Luke Gosling with one count of breaching bail conditions less than one month after he was arrested over the alleged assault of the Territory’s administrator, David Connolly. Gosling was charged with two counts of assault over an incident that allegedly occurred at a cultural festival in Darwin on 18 July. Continue reading...
I once saw Enes Kanter speak truth to power. Now he only punches down | Bryan Armen Graham
Nearly a decade after I watched him defy Erdoğan at great personal cost, the ex-NBA player is using his hard-won freedom to turn transgender people into a punchline Nine years ago, I watched Enes Kanter ask America to take him in . It was May 2017, inside the National Basketball Players Association’s offices in midtown Manhattan. Kanter had just returned from a frightening detention at Bucharest airport, where Romanian border police told him Turkey had canceled his passport. He’d just turned 25, an NBA center with a green card and no country he could safely call home. “I’m open for adoption,” he joked from the head of a table in a nondescript conference room, addressing a dozen reporters hastily summoned by his manager. Then he turned serious: “My next move is to just become an American citizen.” Continue reading...
Another set of Sullivan brothers are making football waves in Bangladesh
While Cavan and Quinn Sullivan star in MLS with the Philadelphia Union, brothers Ronan and Declan have connected with their South Asian heritage Ronan Sullivan had tried a panenka twice in his life. Both attempts were at practice on the other side of the world, and one hit the crossbar. But his twin brother, Declan, was hardly surprised when Ronan turned to him and told him he’d chip the fifth penalty of a shootout that could win a scoreless tournament final, as millions tuned in online to see his Bangladesh side play against India in the Under-20 South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship. “He didn’t even need to say it. I knew he was gonna do that the whole time,” Declan remembered, sitting next to his brother on the couch of their dorm room at Saint Joseph’s University. “I knew that if he got the last pen to win it, he was gonna do that. That’s just the him thing to do.” Continue reading...
Luka Dončić looks like a superstar adrift at the Lakers
The Slovenian is one of the best players on the planet. But factors largely beyond his control have started to turn his career into a slog Luka Dončić must feel as though, these past few months, he’s been twirling in a washing machine. He announced a separation from his fiancee in March; reports followed of a prolonged custody battle over their two daughters. As Dončić plays in the NBA and his children live in Slovenia, he doesn’t see them much as is. But after the reports of the rift with his ex emerged, he started playing some of the best basketball of his life: he led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 15-2 record in March, a stretch that included a torrential 60-point display against the Miami Heat. Behind Dončić’s brightening star, the Lakers seemed to be sharpening into a real contender. Then Dončić tweaked his hamstring in April and the illusion shattered. He watched from the sidelines as the Lakers limped out of the playoffs with an inevitable second-round defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Actually, Dončić must feel as if he’s been in turmoil for the past few years . He made his first – and so far only – NBA finals in 2024, leading the Dallas Mavericks there with a barrage of awesome shotmaking. As the best offensive player on the court while playing through multiple injuries, Dončić and his Mavs lost to the far deeper Boston Celtics in five games. As thanks, the Mavericks traded Dončić to the Lakers, citing defensive concerns, when what had really doomed them against the Celtics was that no one aside from Luka – who led his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals in that series – could play at the requisite level to win. Continue reading...
Year of after-school care now costs £2,800 a child in parts of UK
Bills have jumped 42% in England over the past 10 years – and that excludes the cost of breakfast clubs and extracurricular activities Parents of primary schoolchildren in England will pay 42% more for after-school childcare this year than they did 10 years ago, with annual bills now exceeding more than £2,800 a child in some parts of the UK. A Guardian analysis of data collected by the children’s charity Coram has revealed that the annual cost of after-school care for children aged 5 to 11 in England has risen by 5% over the past year to £2,636. Continue reading...
Burnham to take Zelenskyy’s pleas for Patriot missiles to Trump – Europe live
UK PM to join delegation of leaders lobbying US president to step up supplies Burnham plans trip to New York as Ukraine pleads for US-made missiles It’s worth reading Zelenskyy’s social media post about Trump in full (particularly the last line). Here is what he wrote on X: I received warm and heartening congratulations from President Trump on the 35th Anniversary of the Restoration of Ukraine’s Independence: “Dear Mr. President: Continue reading...
Government lays out housing plans but Burnham backtracks on social renting pledge – UK politics live
£10bn for housing with 60% social renting is at odds with PM’s previous call for programme to be spent entirely on social homes Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. The government has set out its plans to spend an initial £10bn on a mix of subsidised housing in England, with a target of 60% being social renting. There’s £39bn allocated over a 10-year period … I’m saying that should be dedicated to council homes. Let’s not be coy any more … I’m saying council homes because control matters. Andy Burnham has said he plans to travel to the US next month to join European leaders lobbying Donald Trump to supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles. The UK prime minister told Bloomberg he was “looking forward to going to New York” in September, which is when the UN general assembly will meet. He said details of the trip were not “fully confirmed” but it was “likely” to go ahead. AI models trained on Ukrainian battlefield data will be used to stop protesters and foreign states targeting UK defence sites, railways and energy plants under a deal struck between London and Kyiv. Private companies will also be given access to the vast trove of data from Ukraine’s Avengers AI lab to help build new systems, the first agreement of its kind in the UK. Social housing tenants will be evicted if they fail to keep their gardens well maintained under a Reform UK government, the party has announced. Lee Anderson, the party’s chair, said that if Reform came to power it would insist that those in social rented homes would be required to keep their properties decorated and gardens looked after. Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore Britain , is on course to earn as much from the social media platform X as he does from his salary as an MP, after surging income from posts that include demands for mass deportations. Lowe has earned £932 an hour for his posts on X , formerly Twitter, since the start of the year, according to his own declarations in the register of MPs’ financial interests, which detail how many hours he has spent on X for each payment he received from the platform. Continue reading...
Gold price hits three-month high amid fears over Iran war and Trump economy
Bitcoin rises above $80,000 for the first time since May amid uncertainty over US fiscal plans Business live – latest updates Gold prices hit their highest level in more than three months on Tuesday as continued conflict in the Middle East and ongoing political uncertainty fuelled the latest rally in the precious metal. Gold is viewed as a safe haven by investors and its price tends to rise at times of uncertainty. Continue reading...
Lego sales rise as World Cup and F1 ranges prove to be winners
Danish toymaker also scores success with KPop Demon Hunters, Star Wars and botanicals products Business live – latest updates Lego sales have risen by more than a fifth as tie-ups with the football World Cup, Formula One and the hit film KPop Demon Hunters as well as its flower-based and Star Wars kits drive demand. The Danish toymaker said its revenues increased by 21% to 41.9bn Danish kroner (£4.8bn) in the first six months of 2026, driven by strong growth in the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions. Sales by its clients to consumers rose by 22%. Continue reading...
Alan Jones and fellow 2GB host referred to SMH and reporter as ‘pigs in the media’, court hears
Jason Morrison, a former presenter at the Sydney radio station, denies ‘tailoring his evidence’ during trial of veteran shock jock Jones Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Alan Jones and fellow 2GB shock jock Jason Morrison often referred to the Sydney Morning Herald and its chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont as “pigs in the media”, a Sydney court has heard. The text messages were uncovered as Morrison faced accusations from the prosecution on Tuesday of “tailoring his evidence” about an alleged assault at a lower north shore restaurant to suit his friend Jones. Continue reading...
US Treasury’s Scott Bessent ‘will lose’ battle with bond markets, former mentor warns
Trump ally should cut budget deficit rather than try to suppress bond yields, says billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller Scott Bessent’s attempt to calm the bond markets and push down America’s cost of borrowing have attracted a rebuke from the US Treasury secretary’s former mentor. Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller, who worked with Bessent at George Soros’s fund management firm in the 1990s, has warned that his former pupil is courting danger by trying to suppress US bond yields. Continue reading...
‘Enough is enough’: 121 Indigenous Victorians have died by suicide in the past five years
Royal commission recommended First Nations healing centres in 2021 but the Indigenous health service says the state has ‘done nothing’ to fund it Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast On the steps of Victorian parliament stood 121 empty chairs, marking the number of Indigenous lives lost to suicide in the state in the past five years. All of these deaths, the state’s peak body for Aboriginal health said, came after the final report of the royal commission into mental health in March 2021 . Continue reading...
Burnham plans trip to New York as Ukraine pleads for US-made missiles
UK prime minister ‘likely’ to travel to US in September, after meeting Zelenskyy and saying supply problem is ‘fixable’ Andy Burnham has said he plans to travel to the US next month to join European leaders lobbying Donald Trump to supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles. The UK prime minister told Bloomberg he was “looking forward to going to New York” in September, which is when the UN General Assembly will meet. He said details of the trip were not “fully confirmed” but it was “likely” to go ahead. The trip would be Burnham’s first US visit since becoming prime minister in July. Continue reading...
The war on ‘loudcasting’ phones can be won, but it will take some very British nudging | Dan Hancox
Although mobiles blared in public are nothing new, this crop of headphone-dodging irritants are truly maddening. It’s time to take them on ‘Interesting cities can’t be quiet”, runs one of grime DJ and music industry thinker Elijah’s epigrams – and in its essential spirit, he is right. Silent, tidy, prim cities should be treated with suspicion. Any such atmosphere denotes that something has gone wrong at a macro level: either you’ve wound up in an authoritarian regime or, worse, Switzerland. But not all urban sounds are created equal, and some are more unwelcome than others. Take the tide of (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) reels crashing on the shores of our collective attention on public transport, thanks to the astonishing number of grown adults who think it’s OK to surf the slopwave without headphones. Dan Hancox is a writer and editor covering music, politics and cities. His latest book is Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World Continue reading...
Reader Q&A: ask international correspondent Luke Harding a question now
The Guardian’s senior international reporter Luke Harding will be answering your questions live from 1pm BST. Ask him about his new book on Trump and Putin, the state of the war in Ukraine, or his career reporting from Kyiv, Moscow and around the world Ask a question: log in or sign up here Luke Harding, author and award-winning foreign correspondent , has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and most recently Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2011 he was the Guardian’s chief writer in Moscow before being expelled by the Kremlin . Luke has been reporting this week on the Andy Burnham’s renewal of support for Ukraine and Russia’s loudening threats to Britain . He has also recently written in depth about Ukraine’s increasingly successful drone warfare tactics and the aftermath of injuries for Ukrainian soldiers . Continue reading...